By KEVIN POST Business Editor | Posted: Sunday, January 31, 2010

The widespread belief that real estate had a terrible 2009 is being disproved by the data for the southern New Jersey market released this week.

Compared with the prior year, sales were almost even in Atlantic and Cape May counties, and significantly higher in Cumberland County. Prices fell, but by single digits, and the time it took to sell homes remained about the same.

Real estate offices said the second half of 2009 in particular was strong, and the momentum is continuing into this year.

“I thought we had a great year,” said April Puesi, broker owner of Coldwell Banker Excel Realty in Vineland, estimating sales at the agency were up 25 percent.

Prudential Fox & Roach’s HomExpert Market Report this week showed 551 home sales in Cumberland County in 2009,

21 percent more than the year before. The median price fell

8.3 percent to $154,000, and the average days a house spent on the market increased from 104 to 113.

Puesi said she’s starting to see prices rising, with appraisals coming in higher than half a year ago.

“I think this is going to continue. We’ve seen it pick up in the last two weeks,” she said. “December was dry, but in January we went right back to normal compared to last year’s sales.”

In Atlantic County, home sales fell 1 percent to 2,602 last year, according to the market report. The median price dropped 9.6 percent and days on the market inched up from 115 in 2008 to 119 in 2009.

“We increased our properties sold about 12 to 15 percent over the previous year,” said Carlo Losco, president of Balsley Losco in Northfield. “That’s not great because 2008 was not a hard year to beat.”

But Losco said that after a weak first half of 2009, sales in the second half were strong through December and continuing into January.

“I’m projecting our agency will see another 15 percent increase in houses sold, but I’m predicting housing prices will probably remain at the same level,” he said.

Losco credited several factors for the improving market: low interest rates, more aggressive lending by banks, pent-up housing demand, federal tax credits and other incentives, and reduced prices.

He said there are many buyers now “stalking the listings,” and as soon as a home price is adjusted to what’s considered a good deal, there are multiple offers for it.

In Cape May County, which isn’t covered by the market report, the county Association of Realtors reported this week that 2009 sales dropped 1 percent to 1,879. The median price fell

8.1 percent to $296,000 and average time on the market was unchanged at 221 days.

Steve Booth, market manager for Prudential Fox & Roach Realtors in Ocean City, said his office sold more units in 2009 but that was due in part to efforts in the primary home market outside of the city.

“I think the Ocean City marketplace is starting to recover, but the numbers across the board from last year in Ocean City itself are still down,” Booth said.

The city is dominated by secondary and investment houses, he said, which haven’t been helped by incentive programs aimed at first-time home buyers and now existing homeowners as well.

“The general feeling is that the worst is over, not so doom and gloom as it has been the past two or three years,” Booth said. “I think we’ll see a gradual recovery in the secondary and investment housing markets, but not a huge jump for the foreseeable future.”

The HomExpert Market Report covered the Greater Philadelphia area, southern New Jersey and northern Delaware.

For all of southern New Jersey, the report said sales were down 1.4 percent in 2009 and the median price declined 8.3 percent to $199,000 from the prior year.